Manic Monday
by Nokomiss
Summary: While trying to hide one secret from her brother, Ginny potentially gains another secret. -complete-


Manic Monday

AN: HP belongs to JKR. Written for Rainpuddle13.

Ginny Weasley decided that Draco Malfoy wasn't so bad after all on a Monday afternoon.

It was a wet and miserable day, and Diagon Alley was as bustling as usual with tourists from the outer regions of Britain's wizarding world. Merchants sold their wares, mothers scolded children and Ginny's hair became more and more frizzed as she struggled through the crowds.

She had almost reached her destination when a flash of red hair in the crowd caused her to leap into the nearest shop (Dougan's Fine Wizarding Attire) and hide fearfully behind a rack of plus-sized clearance men's robes.

"May I help you?"

Ginny jumped and turned around, still clutching at a yellow velvet robe at the snooty voice behind her. An older wizard dressed in stark black and white was looking down his nose at her.

"No!" she hissed.

"Are you sure?" the old wizard asked doubtfully. "You know, handling the merchandise is for potential customers only."

Ginny let the hideous robe slide out of her fingers. "I was simply browsing," she said as snootily as she could manage, which wasn't very snootily at all, considering the state of her hair and the fact that she had just been clutching the most hideous clearance men's robe in the store.

She peered cautiously around the rack of robes but alas she could still see the vibrant red hair of one of her brothers. From this angle she could tell it was Ron, which was terrible. Her closest brother absolutely could not see her here, today, doing what she had planned on doing. There was no way she would be able to keep it secret at all. And that would be very, very bad.

It wasn't that she was ashamed, exactly, only that she knew that she would be given seven kinds of hell by her family if they found out, and then they would forbid her from doing it, and she would have to actually exert her status as a full-grown witch, and it would turn into some big _thing_. She didn't want that, so she oh so casually walked deeper into the wizard's clothing emporium.

Once she neared the back of the store, she turned around and peered towards the front window. She couldn't quite see her brother anymore, which meant, of course, that he couldn't see her any longer.

Unfortunately for her, she forgot to stop walking and backed straight into one of the curtained dressing rooms at the rear of the store, where Draco Malfoy, clad only in his underpants, stood, staring in shock at her.

"Get out of here!" shrieked the tailor. "This is a private room!"

Ginny was flustered. Not only was she utterly unprepared to see a mostly naked former Quidditch player (who she had to remind herself that she hated dearly and most certainly did not want to take a bite out of his muffin butt), but she knew she looked frightful enough to incite the sort of scathing comment that would send her stomping out in a fit of indignant anger, right into her dear brother's grasp.

Ginny Weasley saw very few options for getting out of this gracefully, and most involved pretending that she didn't speak English and apparently freakishly resembled a British witch from a loud, well-known family.

Luckily, Draco unbeknownstly saved her from embarrassing herself further by trying to implement this half cocked plan. He looked her up and down, and then said, spreading his arms out, "Now that you've seen the goods, I think you should return the favor."

The tailor turned purple and coughed.

Ginny, acting out of some sort of wicked impulse, raised an eyebrow and said, "I think there are some goods I haven't seen yet."

The tailor paled and looked around edgily.

Draco hooked his thumbs into the band of his drawers.

Ginny couldn't quite decide whether to let him continue and then pay her fee happily, or stop him right there and escape the room before her simple life got a hell of a lot more complicated.

The tailor prevented her from having to make a choice. "This is utterly unacceptable, Mr. Malfoy! Bringing a cheap paramour into our reputable business!"

"Cheap?" squeaked Ginny.

"Paramour?" said Draco incredulously.

"I'm out of here," Ginny said, saying what she probably should have the second she found herself in a room with them in the first place. She swept the curtain aside, took a single step out, saw Ron, Fred and George inspecting the clearance rack that she had been clinging to a few moments earlier, and quickly fled back into the dressing room with the angry tailor and smirking blond.

"What are you doing back in here, missy?" snapped the tailor.

"I knew you wouldn't be able to resist this," Draco said smugly.

"I'm not in here over _you_," she snapped.

"Why, then?" said Draco with the confidence that came from someone who knew they were utterly right.

"I'm avoiding my brothers, okay?" Ginny snapped.

"You have brothers?"

Ginny had known that he didn't recognize her, but there was still a slight stab of anger that he didn't know her. "Yeah. Lots of them," she said.

Draco squinted at her, and gasped. "You're the Weasley girl!"

"Yeah. I am."

"What happened to your hair?" he asked.

Ginny scowled. "I like it."

He looked doubtful. "But isn't red hair how your people identify themselves from the rest of the rabble?"

Ginny tossed her hair, and said, "You mean, it's the only way you could tell me apart from the kind of girl whose goodies you want to see?"

Draco blinked, and said, "Well, I still want to see your goods."

They stared at each other a moment.

"Why don't you want to see your brothers?" asked Draco.

"Because then they'll see my hair," Ginny offered with a sardonic smile. She tugged at a platinum blonde, frizzy lock, and said, "It's not quite what they're used to."

"So why'd you change your hair if you didn't want anyone to see it?"

"Well, it's only for today," she said. "Hopefully."

"Only for today?"

Ginny sighed, and admitted something out loud that she never imagined herself saying, especially to Draco Malfoy. "I'm a dancer."

Draco blinked. "What?"

"At the amateur dance night at Evilene's."

She watched as the various stages of shock flitted across his face, and then he said, "So does that mean that when you show me the goods I get a lap dance too?"

Ginny couldn't help giggling. "Is that a really unromantic way of asking me out on a date?"

Draco smirked, held out a hand for the tailor to hand him his pants, and said, "I think so."

"Well, how could a girl refuse an invitation like that?" Ginny replied with a grin.


End file.
